Monday, August 6, 2012

THE TREATMENT: "This Might Hurt

Okay, so who remembers Roadstar? British, young, full of promise and masterminded by Airrace man Laurie Mansworth, Roadstar were hotly tipped to be the Next Big Thing, but never quite made it, despite two first class albums, and split with Mansworth to grow even bigger balls (and more disappointment) as Heaven’s Basement. I know there are people out there who miss the lads, and so does Mansworth, as The Treatment seem to be nothing less that Roadstar part 2, this time featuring his own boy, Dhani Mansworth, on drums.

“This Might Hurt” was released last year, but has been picked up and polished by Spinefarm to promote the band as they go out with Kiss and Motley Crue, throwing in a couple of new tracks and changing the ghastly original cover to a totally new, almost as bad one. Get past the cover, though, and you find a really cool album. Take bits of Tesla (Matt Jones has a marvellous Jeff Keith-esque voice), The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith and mix liberally with the two Roadstar albums and The Treatment will basically arrive fully formed. Plenty of sleaze, some cool riffs and no doubt a gut full of live presence, it’s a very hard album to dislike.

If I have to be critical (and I do, it’s sorta the job) then it all comes back to the fact that this could have been the third Roadstar album. It bears the legend “All Songs Written By The Treatment”, but Mansworth Snr’s bootprints are all over it (and he owns the publishing copyright). I’ve got nothing against the guy, but he’s going round in ever decreasing circles by throwing out another band with the same sound. That said, and this is the confusing bit, if Roadstar had stayed together and released this album I would have raved about it.

So The Treatment get a four R rating, purely because the music on offer is still great to listen to. If you liked Roadstar, or the original incarnation of Heaven’s Basement, you will no doubt get a huge kick out of “This Might Hurt”, but be warned: you might feel a little dirty afterwards. Purebred rawk and rawl, certainly, but I hope their next disc moves them forward and lifts them out of a dead band’s long shadow.
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